Located on the Balkan Peninsula in southeast Europe, Croatia is a
republic made up of what was a northern internal division of Yugoslavia,
where Croatian is spoken.

Due to political restrictions, no missionary work was done in Croatia
until 1966 when Tomislav Zidar wrote to the Church requesting information.
He had found a tract of "Joseph Smith Tells His Own Story" inside a
newspaper.

In response to Zidar's letter, J. Peter Loscher, president of the
Austrian Mission and his assistant Ralph V. Benson, traveled to Zagreb,
Yugoslavia, to meet with Zidar. On 12 July 1966 he was baptized by Benson
in the Sava River.

In 1971, Kresimir Cosic, a basketball player recruited to play for
Brigham Young University, was baptized in Provo, Utah. Because of his
popularity he became the Church's most powerful influence in Croatia until
his death from leukemia on 25 May 1995. During his summer break from school
in 1972, Cosic returned to his home in Zadar where he shared his new-found
faith. He found a few converts and on 11 September 1972 the first sacrament
meeting was held in Zadar.

In November of 1974 missionaries from the Austria Vienna Mission, at the
suggestion of Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve,
began to conduct missionary work among Serbo-Croatian guest workers in
Vienna. A Serbo-Croatian Sunday school was established in Vienna in March
1975. The work was sufficiently successful that six missionaries who had
been trained in Serbo-Croatian at the Language Training Mission arrived on
7 May 1975 to work in Vienna.

Missionaries Kirk Barrus and Michael Meyer were sent from the Austria
Vienna Mission to Zadar on 1 February 1978. Other missionaries soon
followed to work there and in other cities. Missionaries continued to work
throughout the 1980s under the jurisdiction of the Austria Vienna Mission.
Though not allowed to actively work as traditional missionaries, they were
permitted to speak about the Church if they were first asked by a potential
investigator.

Church registration was granted in 1985 after the first meetinghouse in
Zagreb was dedicated in November of that year by Elder Thomas S. Monson of
the Quorum of the Twelve.

In July 1987 the Austria Vienna East Mission was created and
responsibility for Croatia was transferred to that mission.

Responsibility for Yugoslavia returned to the Austria Vienna Mission on
22 March 1991. In June of that year, when Croatia and neighboring Slovenia
declared independence from Yugoslavia, missionaries were evacuated due to
the ensuing war. They returned in February 1992.

Following the dissolution of Yugoslavia, Kresimir Cosic, because of his
relationship with the United States, and because of the respect held for
him within the country, was appointed deputy ambassador to the United
States from Croatia in 1992.

July 1996 marked the creation of the Austria Vienna South Mission with
Johann Wondra as president. The mission was responsible for supervising the
nations of the former Yugoslavia including Croatia. In June of 1999 the
mission offices were transferred from Vienna, Austria, to Ljubljana,
Slovenia, and the name of the mission was changed to the Slovenia Ljubljana
Mission. The name was changed again in January 2003, to the Croatia Zagreb
Mission.